Car bomb explodes south of Baghdad

Bombed police station

10:55AM GMT 10 Feb 2004

A car bomb that ripped through a police station south of Baghdad has killed up to 50 people and injured 150 more.

The car, parked outside the station in the small town of Iskandariya, 25 miles south of the capital, brought down a large part of the building and others nearby, said police. Most of the dead and injured were local.

Lieutenant Hussein Sami said the explosion occurred as hundreds of civilians flocked to the police station at Iskandariya to fill in applications to join the police force.

As Iskandariya has only a small hospital, many of the wounded were evacuated to hospitals in Baghdad or flown by helicopter to a hospital for Polish troops stationed near the town.